Liberia Fights Back, Only 5 Ebola Cases in Entire Country

Just five confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease remain in Liberia, a West African country that has seen more than 3,600 deaths from the outbreak of the deadly virus, Reuters quoted a senior health official as saying Friday. “It means that we are going down to zero, if everything goes well, if other people don’t get sick in other places,” said Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah, who leads Liberia’s Ebola task force. Three...

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Ebola Care Centers in Liberia nearly empty as Outbreak fades

Liberia, once the epicenter of West Africa’s deadly Ebola epidemic, has just five remaining confirmed cases of the disease, a senior health official said on Friday, highlighting the country’s success in halting new infections. “We have five confirmed Ebola cases in Liberia as of today,” said Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah, who heads Liberia’s Ebola taskforce. “It means that we are going down to zero,...

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Why you should worry less about Ebola and more about Measles

Officials stressed the Ebola epidemic in Africa was going to be contained. Then it mushroomed to the worst Ebola outbreak in history and jumped an ocean, as a Liberian man named Thomas E. Duncan brought the disease to Texas. It’s clear the United States has already messed up several times in the fight against Ebola. There will probably be blunders in coming weeks, too. Of course, a mass Ebola outbreak in the United States never materialized. But...

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Ebola Deaths Parallel with Devastating Medieval Plague

As Ebola Deaths Rise, Researcher Sees Parallels with Devastating Medieval Plague If you think that Ebola is bad – and it is – the current outbreak in West Africa is small compared with another deadly epidemic that engulfed much of the globe centuries ago. It is realistic to estimate that during the Middle Ages, plague – also known as the Black Death – wiped out 40 to 60 percent of the population in large areas of Europe, Africa and Asia, according...

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Priests in Guinea beaten and held hostage over Ebola fears

Three Baptist Priests in Guinea were assaulted and held hostage yesterday by local villagers after being mistaken for campaigners promoting awareness about Ebola. They were visiting Kabac, a village in the sub-prefecture of Forécariah, to spray insecticide for the treatment of wells and pit latrines. Locals reportedly thought they were bringing Ebola and attacked the priests. After the assault they were held hostage and had their vehicle set ablaze. The...

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Africa Cup of Nations – Ebola Checks at Gates of AFCON 2015

Ebola screening system at the Africa Cup of Nations games in Equatorial Guinea. All supporters have a temperature check – with those above 38 °C  not allowed in – and must then use a hand-sanitization gel before entering the stadium. All players and visitors to the Africa Cup of Nations are required to be tested for Ebola upon their arrival in Equatorial Guinea. The tournament was set to be staged in Morocco, who won the competition...

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Five H5N1 Avian Flu Deaths So Far This Year

EGYPT An Egyptian woman and child died of H5N1 avian flu, the health ministry said on Monday, the fourth and fifth persons to die of the illness in the country this year. The six-year-old child died in Minya province on Monday evening, after a 47-year-old woman succumbed to the disease in Assiut province earlier in the day, ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said. Both Assiut and Minya provinces are rural areas that have seen a number of bird...

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Cameroon Army Frees 24 Boko Haram Hostages

Cameroon’s army has freed 24 hostages kidnapped during a cross-border attack by suspected Boko Haram fighters based in neighbouring Nigeria, government officials said. In their latest cross-border raid on Sunday, the Nigeria-based Boko Haram fighters seized at least 80 people in northern Cameroon, most of them women and children. Cameroon Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakari told Al Jazeera that the Cameroon army was able to free at least...

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No New Ebola Cases in Bomi County, Liberia

Bomi County, Liberia has not recorded any new cases of Ebola since November 25, 2014, the County Health Officer, Dr. Gabriel G. Logan, has disclosed. He, however, said that this report “should not be the reason for the people of the county to rejoice but instead be cautious.” In an interview with the Liberia News Agency in Tubmanburg recently, Dr. Logan said the County Health Team (CHT) will continue efforts aimed at containing the virus until...

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5 Facts About the Threat of Nigeria’s Boko Haram vs Ebola

The Boko Haram situation has received less attention from the media than the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris due to Nigeria’s remote location and the inherent danger in working there, says Ricardo René Larémont, Binghamton University professor of political science and sociology. “This is essentially a no-go zone. There are very few journalists who can go there. Consequently, it is not going to get the attention that Paris would get....

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